Do I have to give up sweets to lose weight???

Wtn_Gurl

if you can say "Food is fuel" and look at your food choices like that, maybe you wont eat the stuff making you fat and teasing your cravings.

it helps me getting a whole different attitude and emotions toward food.

i love pastry and sweets, muffins,etc. especially cupcakes with frosting! so if i see a plate of cupcakes with an inch of frosting, I will totally crave it like a drug addict seeing heroin.

so i think, well i will taste this for 5 minutes, but if i dont lose this weight, my body will continue to have pains from the overweight my body is finding it cant carry too well anymore. so in the short run, yeah those sweets that make you fat will be delicious, but then the long run, the big picture, they are really hurtful, if thats keeping you from losing weight and conquering your cravings.

I do not do the everything in moderation. i am doing well without it. others say its ok. what works for YOU is what you should do.

I eat delish greek yogurt which has some sweetness but is far better for me. and i eat fruit. after not indulging in sweets like cakes and pastries, fruit does taste really sweet.

its your decision - 5 minutes of pleasure, or 1 year of fat hurting you. all in that one cupcake.

bcattoes

I lose faster when I eat less sugar, even when calories are the same. Too much sugar makes me bloat.

MelodyandBarbells

I have a deficit of close to 500 a day just from food, plus the extra calories from working out that I do not eat back (half) which should show a loss of at least one pound a week depending on how many days I work out that week. But about 3500 to 4800 calorie deficit per week based on a TDEE of 1950. The numbers aren't exact, but I know I should be losing at the very LEAST 1/2 pound a week for sure. Been stalled for 3 weeks now.

This happens to me, too - I will drop a bunch, and then stall out and drop nothing - but then, after a few weeks, I'll drop another 2-3 lbs pretty quickly... then stall out again.

I think a lot of this is hormonal. I also notice, for me, that my water and salt intake are HUGE factors in seeing the scale drop. If my water is too low, and salt too high... the scale refuses to budge no matter what my caloric intake is for that time period.

Exactly!!

Weight loss is not always linear. It took me weighing everyday to know my weight really would fluctuate up to four pounds in the same day. I literally have only one week a month when I see my "lowest" weight then it's back on the sea-saw. Had to be really patient and trust the process to finally notice a downward trend, or accept a "range of weights" instead of a single number. Hahah. So I would say:

Three weeks is not really a stall. Give yourself a break, OP!

But if you want to clean up your numbers a bit I really would restate doing something with the exercise calories. You have a great formula but you must use good inputs. It's like when I was reviewing a high X nutrient day and wanted to see what made me successful. There was no one smoking gun; it was a combination of all the entries. Pepperoni slices? Bet you can weigh those too heh just messing with ya

Rocbola

When i started eating more fruit, my desire for sweets was drastically lower. Pastries and chocolate shakes just don't seem appealing to me when i've had plenty of sweet juicy delicious fruit that day.

airangel59

I eat sweets, fast food & junk food...I eat them in moderation of course, I fit them into the diary and plan my meals around them. There is no way I can stick to a plan long term if I have give up sweets (etc) , it works for me.

AbsolutelyAnnie

You can eat sweets and lose weight. I eat all foods in moderation. Enjoy your life!

Miamiuu

an average candy bar is around 250 calories. you can burn that off walking an hour a day.

Robin_Bin

[Not reading all the other responses, so excuse repeats.]

Don't give up anything that you aren't willing to give up for the rest of your life. Just eat it in moderation. I eat chocolate almost every day -- I've switched over time to higher quality, darker chocolate, but less of it. Some sweets have few to no calories. Have you ever had licorice tea? Fruit is a great way to eat nutritiously and satisfy a sweet tooth. I love berries, and they're good for me! And how about chocolate dipped, fresh strawberries?

Trying to leave something you really like completely out of your diet is likely to result in cravings, binges, and other issues.

Here's a blog entry about cravings which includes some things you can eat when you want sweets - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin_Bin/view/cravings-282817 and here's a list of over 100 "treats" for under 100 calories: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin_Bin/view/snacks-of-100-calories-or-less-267198

thesupremeforce

I eat pretty much whatever I want to eat. There's certainly nothing wrong with bread, chocolate, or dairy.

njitaliana

I looked at your diary, and I think it might help to increase vegetables (1/2 cup is one serving of cooked; 1 cup is 1 serving of raw) and to decrease some of the sweets. Maybe try substituting some fresh fruit for some sweets besides increasing the veggies.

PayneAS

You say you weigh your food (kudos to you) but are you measuring your workouts accurately? An HRM with a chest strap is the most accurate method as MFP will wildly exaggerate calorie burns as well as machines. If you are accurately measuring your food, then the next thing to check would be how much you *think* you are burning and get more accurate with that. There are some fairly cheap HRMs out there (I suggest Polar [since they sync with many fitness machines] although I've heard others recommend Garmin).

mxmkenney

Thanks everyone for the honest feedback! I will try to tighten up my logging even more and under-estimate the calories I burn with exercise. Ya, counting the calories burned from cleaning and walking at a leisurely pace is probably not a good idea. :laugh: It is nice to hear that so many of you have kept sweets/treats in your diet and still have had success. Thanks for sharing what has worked for you - it's giving me hope that I really can do this with diligence and patience!

MargieBettschen

No way! I have dark chocolate almost every night.

shinkalork

Give it up no..but reduce carbs and sugar would be great.

1princesswarrior

I concur that a heart rate monitor could help you better estimate your cardio burns. I went for a run last week and when I entered it my hrm had my burn at around 380 calories for 33 minutes and mfp put me at 1400+ for the same amount of time and average speed.

Even an app I use to track my speed wasn't that bad an estimate for a calorie burn at 400 something.

deliacm

I'd venture to say that most failed diet plans failed because people believed they had to deprive themselves of all the guilty pleasures. The only way to sustain weight loss is to learn how to eat the things you want in moderation or by adjusting the rest of your daily intake. If I know I want to eat a huge piece of cake for dessert, I know I need to eat foods with low calories in each of my meals. On those days, I fill lunch and dinner with TONS of veggies that fill me up without consuming all my daily calorie allowance.